rthstewart | Three Sentence Ficathon 2022

This post is NOW CLOSED TO NEW PROMPTS! PLEASE POST YOUR NEW PROMPTS HERE, IN POST 2! Do continue to fill prompts here but please put all new prompts in Post 2.

Welcome to the Three Sentence Ficathon!

Here's a Friending meme!

What is the 3 Sentence Ficathon?
This is an open exchange where you answer a prompt with a fic consisting of only three sentences. It's open to all fandoms and you can post and fill as many prompts as you like, as many times as you want.

What do I do first?
You can start 3SF by posting prompts! When posting a prompt please format it this way:

fandom, character(s), prompt word/sentence.

Only one prompt per comment please. So, for example,

Star Wars, Obi-Wan Kenobi, I don't like sand."

Open ended and anthropomorphic fills are popular too, such as:

Any, Any, "I don't like sand."

or

Earth geography, sand, "I don't like humans very much, either."

What happens after that?
You answer other posters' prompts in three sentences (or more if you can't stop yourself) and fill as many prompts as you want, as many times as you wish. If you see that a prompt you loved has already been filled, go ahead and fill it again! Multiple fills of the same prompt are allowed and even encouraged! (We get really fun stories going this way).

Can I still post if I need more than 3 sentences? Or should I just abuse grammar in ways the English language never contemplated?
Yes. Yes.

But I'm not a member of Dreamwidth
No problem. You can comment anonymously or through open ID

I'm really overwhelmed by all the prompts and how much there is and how fast it goes. I can't read 1,000 prompts and fills. It's too much.
I hear this a lot and it keeps a lot of people from participating. The 3SF is big and it moves fast, especially at first. I get overwhelmed, too, and I'm hosting the thing. With 2020 and 2021 sucking so badly you don't want something that's supposed to be fun cause you anxiety. I have a couple of suggestions for managing the 3SF volume.

First, really, you don't have to read every prompt and fill on every page. You can start at the last page of this and just go forward, or back a page or two. It's fine.
You can come and go as time and energy allow, you don't have to participate the whole time, and it drops off quite at bit after about 2 weeks and especially once we open a new post because this one is approaching 4,500 comments.
Even after the 3SF and new prompting end, people fill prompts all year long.
You can fill an already filled prompt and you can can leave a prompt that's already been prompted before. People do it all the time.

Always make sure you're looking at top-level comments only, not threaded. That helps a lot. Your screen should look like this.

But shouldn't I read everything to see if someone already prompted the same prompt I want to leave if someone already filled it?
No. Prompt as many times as you want, as much as you want. It doesn't matter if someone prompted the exact same prompt. Go ahead and prompt again!

I left a prompt and no one filled it. Can I prompt it again?
Absolutely!

Can I spread the word?
Yes, please. I generally fail at creating banners and embed codes but if you create one and make it really idiot-proof, I might be able to post and share it. Feel free to cross-post this entry. If you create your own banners or icons, let me know and I'll share!
Please share the 3SF with your followers, friends, and any channels and comms you are active on. I'll post on fandom calendar, Tumblr, and Twitter, but I don't have many connections in other spaces such as Discord.

Here's my attempt at a text box that might go horribly awry.

How long will it go?
The 3SF closes to new prompts on February 13, 2022. The entry stays open permanently and people post fills all year long. (There were a bunch of new posts to the 2021 3SF this week!)

Are there any rules about cross-posting?
Nope, you can post wherever you want, whenever you want. A lot of folks collected their responses together and posted them on AO3 under the 3 sentence fiction tag. 3SFs are a terrific prompt for remixes and could be helpful for Yuletide bears, too.

What about spoilers, content and archive warnings, triggers, pairings, ratings, tags, and squick?

I thought a lot about this. It boils down to reader beware. In my experience, this typically gets too big, moves too fast, and the stories are too short for content warnings and ratings to even apply. It is too big for me to moderate in this way. You should assume spoilers are fair game and that the initial poster and the responder have opted to use no content warnings or tags. This means AO3 content warnings for dubcon, violence, canon character death, underage, etc. COULD be present (and much more). I've found personally that I can skim and scroll by stuff that, from the prompt, I can tell isn't my favorite flavor of delicious cake. Use your best judgment, protect yourself, and be prepared to skip over things that aren't your thing. In this format, the obligation is on you, the reader, to protect yourself from triggering content.
Some posters do include warnings and spoiler tags or include spoiler space, but they don't have to do so.

Why is 3SF split among several posts? That seems confusing.
It is confusing and we always lose momentum once we have to move to a second post. The reason is because at 5,000 comments to a single post, DW installs a human test CAPTCHA, which is a pain for users. So, once this entry gets to the upper 4,000 comments, I open a new post. If you've been waiting until things slow down to participate, when we open a second post is often a good place to join.

If I have questions, what do I do?
I'm rthstewart everywhere, here, Twitter, Tumblr, gmail and AO3.

A special thank you to

conuly .
Last year, Conuly started logging all unfilled prompts.
This year's (2021) unfilled prompts are here.
Last year's (2020) unfilled prompts are here.

Conuly asks that you not reply, as they want to be able to edit and add more prompts to the list.

Here, have some icons and banners and let me know if you've created your own!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Final Fantasy IX, Vivi, just how did he become a father anyway?

The mist still lingers in caves and deep valleys, though its source is gone; it still gives rise to wild monsters, and it can still be gathered, as the books in Dali instruct, clarified and compressed into something new.

The place still scares him, with its tangled pipes and conveyers that don’t let him forget it was meant as a factory for weapons. He isn’t sure it’s right, making use of this knowledge and these machines – until the first Mist-born infant blinks bright eyes and grips his finger in a tiny, gloved hand, and he knows he’s brought something good into the world.

Oh, anon, I did a little dance when I saw this got filled and I could dance again with how happy this made me! The idea of a tiny little baby black mage is just so amazing, I love it. Thank you!

Thank you! It was a great prompt.

Collaborating with Kuja makes him feel sick, a hot and angry lump in his throat that makes Vivi want to scream and bite and throw up every rotten emotion that horrible man ever made him feel. Purge the sickness like his grandpa taught him when Vivi ate something only a Qu could digest and Quan marked that in the "Can't Eat" column.

But.

No one else knew how to build Black Mages. Not ones like himself, instead of the cheap, flimsy kind that burned out under a year.

Zidane talked him into it in the end. Something about offering Kuja a chance to do better. Vivi didn't really care. Kuja could burn, get minced, fester under the sun and be carrion food for all he cared. But he did care very much about Zidane and his big heart, so Vivi could be very brave and find a future for his people. One that had nothing to do with an evil creator.

At least Kuja didn't pretend to be nice. Vivi really would have to shove his head into the rain barrel for that. Both of them were trying for Zidane's sake, and that lent enough effort to come to some sort of understanding. Kuja was quiet, for the most part, directing Vivi to his reference and note books whenever possible instead of talking. Maybe that guy felt guilty. Good. He should. Vivi hoped his sleep was full of nightmares.

It had to be, with what Vivi found in those books. He wasn't a very squeamish boy, grandpa had him help with the butchering early, but seeing the diagrams of a cut open person made his stomach feel funny. Even worse were the notebooks, written in Kuja's hand when he was around Zidane's age. Seeing cheerful words about getting lungs working enough to scream in pain, morose ones about having to clean up another "pile of meat and sinew" turned Vivi's appetite. He didn't want to know about any of this. Especially not about Kuja, the glimpses of something not a ball of bitter hatred and spite. It made it all the harder to understand why that man would choose to hurt the Black Mages so much.

Still. Vivi persisted. He had to. More and more Black Mages were stopping (dying), and Vivi didn't want to be the only one holding onto their memories. The village needed to stay peopled. They all needed a better legacy than as war machines. He was the only Mage strong enough to do it.

When the first success hatched from their egg, Vivi cried with relief. The Mage was tiny, so tiny, but they had the right number of fingers, working organs, even a little blazing soul, Kuja said.

(Kuja kept staring and staring at the baby. Vivi didn't want to think why and didn't care. He had had his chance to be a father.)

Vivi didn't want to leave the baby's side, showing them off to the other Black Mages, the Genomes, Zidane. The little thing even purred as Vivi nursed them with a bottle, then meowed for more when Vivi made sure they weren't choking or anything. A miracle, even more beloved than Bobby Corwen.

A first of many, if Vivi had anything to do with it.

Oooh, a Kuja lives au! Nice!

I love how despite the fact that Vivi is usually very kind and sensitive, he also has standards about the people he deals with and he's not about to forgive Kuja for what he's done. Also, I love the details of Vivi and his grandfather, and the various things they both learned from and about each other. Also also, the idea that baby black mages meow like cats kills me and I don't know why.

Thanks for this fill, even if I'm horrifically late about commenting!

kuja lives IS canon for me, im never gonna not do it :P both bc of personal bias and also my god, the Drama. face your consequences kuja

yessssss vivi is just such a sweet kid but hes also full of rage. at least when kuja is concerned. i was vividly thinking of when vivi screams that he hates kuja and im like. good for you, son! he gets to be mad and stay mad. not everyone must or should forgive kuja. it was very engaging writing his anger and feelings.

I love vivi and his grandpa so much. i am so weak. also i thought itd be a nice contrast of like, the themes of family and origin in the game. Because kuja could be called vivi's "father" as his creator, but did none of the raising or care that vivi's adoptive grandpa did. it parallels how kuja didnt have a parent either, only a distant creator; unlike vivi and zidane, kuja had no loving family, and so became coldly selfish to survive. kuja's isolation is in direct opposition to how warm and friendly zidane and vivi are to others, reaching out where kuja withdraws.

I'm glad you like that detail! I like to think of the black mages as being like black cats. i mean, they both have void faces and shiny eyes! also its Extremely adorable <3

dont worry about the lateness, im just glad you liked it! i really enjoyed the prompt and the excuse to write about all my ff9 emotions.

Three Sentence Ficathon 2022

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